How To Use System Restore in Windows 10
In this blog post, I will talk about and walk you through the System Restore feature in Windows 10. This feature allows you to effectively rollback Windows itself to a previous time when things seemed to be working correctly before a recent change.
In effect, System Restore creates a snapshot in time of Windows itself, and you can create many of them. This process will NOT affect your user files but WILL attempt to remove programs installed since that time, so please be aware of that. System Restore does NOT create a System Image, a snapshot of EVERYTHING on your hard drive.
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The printable PDF version of this post is only available to paid subscribers. A printout is easier to reference as you learn. To be clear, it isn’t simply a printout of this page. It’s a handmade step-by-step guide with bookmarked jump links to get to the parts you care about in a given moment: no extra wasted pages and no ads.
Open System Restore
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Open the Start Menu and type “System Restore”. You won’t see a search box, but just start typing. You will see “Create a restore point”. Click that.
The classic window of System Properties will appear, showing the “System Protection” tab.
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Choosing A Restore Point
On this tab, you’ll quickly notice “System Restore”, and the drives below where it’s currently turned on.
Go ahead and click on the “System Restore” button.
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The “System Restore” wizard will appear. Please read through the descriptions and choose the option you want. The first option is “Recommended Settings”, which automatically chooses a System Restore Point for you.
The second option will let you choose the System Restore point you want.
Either way, click “Next”.
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You are now asked to confirm you want to restore Windows to the point in time when the System Restore Point you have chosen was created.
Please confirm the details, and save anything you have open, as your system will automatically restart the moment you click on “Finish”.
Create A Restore Point
You may want to manually create a System Restore Point. You an do so by clicking on the “Create” button on the “System Protection” tab in the “System Properties” window.
But first, please read the description, and select a drive above to create a System Restore Point on.
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Now it’s time to name your Restore Point. Give it a name you will recognize in the future in a potentially long list of Restore Points, then click the “Create” button.
Turn on or Disable System Protection
Under “Protection Settings”, you’ll notice three choices in my case. The “D” drive where my files are stored, the “C” drive where windows and programs are installed, and it also shows the dual boot installation of Windows 11 I have on this particular computer.
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Only the “C” drive has “System Protection” turned on, where Windows 10 is installed, which makes sense because System Restore only applies to Windows.
Please select the “C” drive, and click “Create”.
Confirm Restore Point Has Been Created
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Remember, trust, but verify.
Go ahead and click the “System Restore” button and let’s double check to make sure that System Restore Point was created.
Choose a Different (custom) Restore Point
Please click on “Choose a different restore point”.
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Now you will see a list of the recent System Restore Points, hopefully including the one you just created.
If you were to click on “Next”, you can confirm the System Restore Point details, and you could click “Finish” to restore Windows to that point in time. Otherwise, click “Cancel”.
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Configure More System Restore Options
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If you want to configure some System Restore settings, click “Configure” on the “System Protection” tab of the “System Properties” window.
These setting will NOT let you choose what to include in any System Restore Points.
In my case, the “C” drive has System Protection turned on. Yours will have it turned on by default as well.
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Below that, you can choose how much disk space to dedicate to System Restore Points, which may be a concern. In my case, Windows has automatically dedicated 10GB (gigabytes) to System Restore Points, but that can be adjusted. When that amount of space is used up, Windows will automatically delete some System Restore Points, so be aware of that.
The printable PDF version of this post is only available to paid subscribers. A printout is easier to reference as you learn. To be clear, it isn’t simply a printout of this page. It’s a handmade step-by-step guide with bookmarked jump links to get to the parts you care about in a given moment: no extra wasted pages and no ads.
I’ll be doing many more blog posts like this, so please let me know if you want to see more content like this!
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